Freddie Sees a Bump Up in Loan Purchases in December

Freddie Mac reported a slight increase in mortgage purchases during December even though refinancings dropped to the lowest level of the year.

The secondary market agency acquired $25.4 billion in mortgages from lenders in December, up from $22.6 billion in the prior month.

Refinances totaled $10.8 billion, or 50%, of December single-family loan acquisitions. A year ago, Freddie purchased $22.5 billion in refinanced loans from its seller/servicers which represented 67% of single-family acquisitions.

The GSE also reported that it purchased $3.8 billion in multifamily loans in December and $26 billion for the full year.

Loan purchases peaked at $52 billion in March and slowly declined to less than $23 billion in October.

Despite this slide in volume, Freddie acquired nearly $453 billion in mortgages in 2013, down from $456 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Freddie Mac guaranteed single-loans that are 90 days or more past due steadily fell over the past 12 months.

The serious delinquency rate fell to 2.4% as of yearend 2013 from about 3.3% in December 2012.